A dazzling bill featuring Victoryland, Robber Robber, ideasforconversations and Swapmeet held back by logistical issues.
There isn’t really a multi-venue festival line-up quite like the one offered by Pitchfork in and around the bustle of Dalston’s Kingsland road every November. The balance of bigger name headliners (DIIV, Mandy, Indiana), and an immaculately curated undercard is pretty much unmatched for festivals of its kind in the sense that almost every act on the bill either a) rarely performs in the UK, b) has just released an acclaimed record, c) arrives with a serious amount of online buzz, or D) all of the above. No performance unites all of these qualities more than that of New York six-piece Victoryland.
Showcasing tracks from underground hit ‘My Heart is a Room with No Cameras’, so celebrated that it got them signed to the same label as Phoebe Bridgers, Victoryland joyously combine every iconic US indie staple you grew up listening to at once. Like Willy Wonka’s newest chewing gum formula that delivers an entire three-course meal in a single piece, echoes of Pavement, LCD Soundsystem, The Strokes, Television and the like commingle and erupt in maximal and emotive anthems. While the music is patently nostalgic, (we could be glib and call it ‘millennial optimism’) the performance is urgent, effervescing, and heart-stoppingly real. It feels ready and ripe for bigger stages and bigger audiences to embrace its pleasures.
It’s a shame then that they, and many other earlier performers at the festival, start their set in depleted rooms. Not for a lack of demand, it seems, but due to offensively slow ticket queues from what appeared to be a chronically undermanned Box Office. Coupling that with condensed timings and not publishing the length of anyone’s sets, the day is soured for punters who are missing out on performances through no fault of their own. If Hard of Hearing didn’t have two writers on the ground, this report would have been a lot shorter.
An expected attention to detail feels lost elsewhere too. Robber Robber’s headline set at The Shacklewell Arms for example, and their intricate and impressive indie-rock that follows in Fire Talk forebears like Wombo and Cola, loses panache when the house lights are on the entire time and no effort is made in the light show.
That’s not to say the festival was without its many highlights. New York duo ideasforconversations raved up Cafe Oto, for real. Their Ear-like blogcore synth textures, melding with fast, bittersweet songwriting and irresistible samples, groove up a packed crowd, with its intense, head-bobbing fervour.
Over at the Victoria, last minute addition Evelyn Gray played her unreleased material, more grounded in the everyday than the world-building escapism of former project Tapir!, but still built of allusive metaphors created by uncanny, oxymoronic imagery. Following Gray, Cootie Catcher blitzed through highlights of their latest two records. Tight drums, liberally shared vocals and huge treble-heavy guitar riffs are a given with this band, but it’s Sophie Chavez on DJ decks at the centre of the stage who really makes the spectacle, scratching and remixing samples cribbed live during the show. On next, Swapmeet admitted their nervousness at what was their first London show, but with their set loaded with tight and immediate tunes there was no need to worry. The band’s magnetism and cohesiveness on stage elevates the songs of debut album ‘Mount Zero’, drawing out every build and every soaring guitar riff. This was a packed lineup of great bands playing as-yet rare London shows, and in relatively intimate venues too. Resolve the logistical issues and this could make for the perfect one-stop night to catch a healthy clutch of the best new bands beginning to break in the UK.
